Sausage failure again

I’m not a sausage cook myself, but I do have a few thoughts that you might think about.

I thought the 025 started out on high the first 20 minutes to get the wood chunk started? You might try a heat sink in it, say pan of sand. After 20 minutes then pull it out and put your sausage in it?

Update to my initial post:

Second attempt to smoke sausage in my 025 CookShack. After smoking the sausage with a smoke tube in my pellet grill, I transferred the sausages to my 025, temperature set at 140℉. After 1 hour, increased to 150℉.  Visually checked the sausage and noticed they were dripping wet,  and the reddish-brown color had turned to a pink.!  Left door open to allow moisture to escape, after 4 more hours (with door shut) with internal temperature stalled 144 ℉, pulled sausage.  Casing tough.

Don't understand the cause, but am about to give up on cooking anything in this stainless steel box.

https://forum.cookshack.com/to...-time-summer-sausage

https://forum.cookshack.com/to...irst-sausage-attempt

If the link above does not help, call CS and speak to one of the folks there. They should be able to assist.

@oldsarge posted:

https://forum.cookshack.com/to...-time-papa's scooperia

https://forum.cookshack.com/to...irst-sausage-attempt

If the link above does not help, call CS and speak to one of the folks there. They should be able to assist.

It is truly excellent and helpful!

I have the bigger brothers to your SMO25.  These units are known for being tight and smoking wet.  People that smoke jerky in them will open the door a number of times to dump the moisture.  I used to do summer sausage and ran the first hour at 145 degrees with the door slightly open to dump the moisture and dry the sausage.  the next hour I use the smoke tube and close the door down to almost closed.  I do this because my units are so tight that the smoke tube will go out if the door isn't slightly ajar.  The rest of the cook is with the door closed, but I do open the door every hour or so to dump moisture.  I have one of the long wood clamps with the squeeze handle that I use to adjust the door opening.   This is where that old saying: "if you're looking, you aren't cookin" bites you in the butt.  Opening and closing the door to dump moisture will extend your cook time.

Thanks for that, IdahoMike. It’s the first helpful response. I bought this cooker used specifically for sausage, but am disappointed. Will continue to use my Weber and Rt-1250 pellet grill - they do a better job with sausage.

The cookshack smokers do a great job at what they were designed to do.  The SMO stands for Smoker Oven, and the original design was for smoking brisket.   Most of the people on this forum have been running these units for years and have learned to adapt our procedures to work with these units and still produce a good product. 

My error. I was of the opinion that an electric smoker with the digital controls that maintained a low set temperature was a great candidate for smoking sausage.  Adapting procedures to accommodate the SMO25 would be  redundant - I can  smoke sausage in my Weber Performer and on my RecTeq pellet grill in addition to low-and-slow cooking and grilling.

That being the case, keeping the SMO25 would be unrealistic.

I agree with Mike. and I can see your point.   When I went from a stick burning offset to electric, there were some adjustments I had to make and I've never  looked back. On a side note, a couple of  electric smoker companies do sell a small fan system that fits over the smoke hole to aid in venting and moisture removal.   Pretty much like a computer fan in a can.